Dear Colleague Letter - iTRAK Conversion and ACM$ Payments

This document has been archived.

June 18, 2014

National Science Foundation
Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management

Dear Colleague,

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be implementing a new financial accounting system during October 2014. The new system will deliver broad improvements. It will improve tracking and reporting of financial information and improve internal control over funds management.

In preparation for conversion to the new system, the Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) will be temporarily unavailable beginning September 18th at 8:00 p.m. EDT through October 13, 2014. Awardee organizations will NOT have access to the ACM$ payment process during this transition period. This will allow NSF to finalize payments, reconcile its general ledger accounts, and transfer historical data from the old accounting system to the new system. ACM$ will be available beginning on October 14, 2014.

To cover the cash needs for NSF awards from September 18 through October 13, NSF is suspending the requirement that funds drawn down be expended within three days of receipt and allowing organizations to draw their estimated cash requirements through ACM$ by 8:00 pm EDT on September 18, 2014 (see Award and Administration Guide – Chapter III. C.2.a).

NSF will be requesting that awardee institutions submit two separate payment requests for anticipated expenditures to be incurred during the transition period:

One request covering September 19-30 to cover September expenditures being incurred, and

One request covering October 1-13 to cover the estimate of funds required for that period.

Throughout the upcoming summer months, the NSF Grantee Cash Management Section (GCMS) will be conducting multiple webinars and distributing additional guidance. These communications will provide further details on preparing for the conversion to the new financial system and requesting payments including the submission of separate payment requests

for the two conversion timeframes noted above. Further information can be found in the link to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the ACM$ FAQ's.

All payment activity must be completed by 8:00 p.m. EDT September 18, 2014.